George Daw says he was fired from his job driving a school bus for being a Good Samaritan during a recent violent storm. (Photo: CBS 2)

WEST BABYLON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A Long Island school bus driver was called into his boss’ office expecting commendation. Instead, he said he was fired for helping three police officers stranded in a violent storm — and transporting them in his school bus.

Daw snapped pictures as a near-monsoon moved through New Hyde Park. Traffic was stopped, cars were submerged and drivers panicked.

Daw finally freed his yellow SUV school bus — with his one single child passenger aboard — amid sudden cries for help from three Nassau County police detectives.

“Do I leave these three police officers, due to company policy?” Daw said. “I didn’t even second guess it. I told the child to jump in the back, these people are coming on board. I had to get them.”

Daw rescued and transported the police officers — their unmarked patrol car was a total loss. He said he continued to home base in Copiague, where he filled out an incident report. But instead of praise, he was handed a notice of termination, which said in part: “Employee endangered welfare of student he was transporting when he picked up three unauthorized passengers.”

It also said: “Employee made decision to drive through large body of water.”

“It’s not like I pulled off the road into a lake trying to endanger somebody’s life. I was caught in a storm,” Daw said.

McLogan asked to speak to Daw’s boss at Educational Bus, but she was told several times there was no one there to speak to her.

The three Nassau detectives and their commanding officer are flabbergasted at the firing.

“We are sorry to hear of any negative consequences that arose from his helping out my detectives,” Detective Lt. Raymond Cote said.

Daw suddenly finds himself unemployed, spending his days at home. He said he’s hoping for his job back, but not expecting his phone to ring.

Daw’s two sons are studying to be police and naval officers. He said if he had the chance to help first responders again, he would not hesitate.

Do you think this punishment is fair? Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below.

Jennifer McLogan returned to WCBS-TV in 1993 to cover Long Island after first reporting for the station in 1982.
Follow @McLoganTV
In the years between, she worked for CBS affiliate WBBM-TV in Chicago and for NBC Network News where she reported...

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This school bus company is an idiot. You have to go case by case, and in this case they have a very upstanding driver who doesn’t appear to be someone to put a child’s life in danger. If anything, having the cops aboard would be helpful in this situation. The man did a good thing and needs his job back. We’ve become too fearful as a people and lost our common sense.

This guy gets fired! And vick gets his job back? This is one day I’m not proud to be a amercian. We need to set a daw day, and all do something nice for a stranger no matter how small the deed may b bless you mr daw

How stupid and egocentric can you get? If a situation is CLEARLY critical, you help. PERIOD. If a cop is in danger, shows his badge, you don’t give him the finger with a lame excuse such as “it could have been a fake badge”. A life is a life. If you can save one or more, do it. Otherwise nobody will want to save you when the time comes.

The law Is the law. No unauthorized passengers! It’s there for the protection and safety of the children we transport.. He could have called for help. Yes we are not to use cell phones…Except in case of an extreme emergency.. I a. Sure this would qualify!

Debbie, how do you know he could have called for help? From the sound of it, it was an IMMEDIATE DANGER situation. What if that was your daughter, or husband, or mother, and because someone thought policy was more important, your loved one died in that storm because it took too long for help to get there. It’s called common sense. Policy should never trump common sense and protection of life. This policy was probably written with the intention of, don’t pick up hitchhikers, or your buddies to go joy riding, or your grandma to drop her at the store on your route. If its obvious its a life/death immediate situation due to an act of god that no one could have planned, where lives were at stake, rationality should kick in and common sense should take over. Period.

The idiocy of “zero tolerance” in the name of safety assumes perfect safety can be assured by slavish adherence to these invented policies. It eliminates any exercise of reasonableness, or erring on the side of compassion. It also gives cover to management to fire someone to fit a hidden agenda. I was subjected to such action.

but u know it makes alot of sense…cuz if this happened in CANADA…kids in the car or not…we would stop and help any way we can..thats the problem with america..u are all to selfish to care about other walks of life…it says alot about who you are matt and the values and morals u show ur kids…i pray for them and you…hope the world takes an easy on ur sorry ass

Do all the people who made negative comments realized that the driver did not pick up hitch hikers on the side of the rode. He help 3 people in and emergency situation. It is really crazy what is going on in this country. that people would have to worry about there job when they were helping in and emergency. What a shame

Matt, I think it’s clear from the overwhelming majority of comments here that you’re wrong. I’m sure you believe that you are right, but common decency would call for any good person to do what the driver did. If you wouldn’t, you’re simply a bad person and I feel sorry for you.

Mr. Daw, I’d be proud to have you as my children’s bus driver! Not only did you rescue and help 3 people in a dangerous senerio, regardless of it being police or if it was 3 homeless people in that storm. You taught that child a life lesson of Caring for others . I hope that child remenbers this and will also follow this Good Samaritans example! We need more people like Mr. Daw!

Classic example of the type bureaucratic stupidity that leaves one scratching their head. Or the exective with a $5 million dollar salary and bonus who called his Helpdesk to say his computer screen is frozen. A guy at the helpdesk making $10/hr has to tell him to reboot his computer. I mean, does any of this make any sense?

You have a child. Big Freakin deal, I have SIX. I would have been outraged if the driver had NOT helped ANY individual, police or NOT. We’re talking HUMANITY and CRISIS here, The Bus Driver is not your precious child;s personal body guard to the exclusion of all humanity.

i have kids too, so dont make remarks about the kid in the bus, he was fine, and the driver did the only thing he could do, besides the fact, what would the story be if it went the other way? something like, bus driver lets 3 cops die in flood.

your a jack ass Matt, and i bet your one of those people who are always saying , i didnt want to get involved.

As the oldest of twelve, I would hope that if any of them were on board, that the driver STILL would have done the same thing. My mother has pulled over and helped stranded people with toddlers and babies in the car. Not ONCE has anything bad ever happened.

Just two weeks ago, we gave a woman a ride home because there were muggings going on in that area. With my little sister in the car. She was freaked out, but otherwise pleasant company, and we felt no danger in doing it. In fact, we were all relieved that she got home safely. I would have felt horrible if I read the news and learned she was harmed because we did not do anything.

This is not something we do often—we do NOT pick up every hitchhiker we come across, but if someone is clearly in trouble, there is only ONE right answer: we help them. I have had this favor paid back at least twice in my life.

Now, to my point, what you are saying is that one kid’s life is more important than those men’s? Who gave you the right to determine that? Guess what? Each of those men is someone’s son too. And each of those men have family, and they could be fathers too. Is it better to let them die and have THEIR children go through the heartbreak of losing their dads? All because some prick like you decides their lives are meaningless “for the sake of the children”?

I also hope you would have that same line of thinking if you were one of the men stranded in the storm, regardless of whether or not the child was yours. ESPECIALLY if it was your child. Because, oh holy one, you would gladly rather drown than have the option to go back home, all for the sake of the child.

You fail at basic human decency. Yes, there are bad people out there, but in my experience, most people are better than you give them credit for.

Obviously you chose not to read my whole comment. I cited the Norway shooting as an example of what dangers can arise from blindly trusting a “badge” or uniform.
I would expect a school bus driver with kids on board to not pick me up in a storm.
I certainly hope when my child is on the school bus, no driver stops to pick up any random people.

The saftey of the one child on board is more important than three grown men in some bad weather.

First of all, it clearly states that he was snapping pictures while “traffic was stopped”. Try to read before attacking something.

Secondly, while, yes, you are correct that police Ids can be faked, in this case, he was in the right. His was the only vehicle able to traverse the water and he helped three stranded humans, no matter what their professions are. Grow a heart.

Now people can’t rescue people any more because someone shot someone in Norway?
Or in the US?
Give me a break.
Next time I see you in a storm, remind me not to rescue you.
Of course he did the right thing.

This is exactly why most people “don’t want to get involved” As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. I would have done the same thing. I can’t ignore or walk away from someone – anyone- crying for or needing help. I’ll try to help if I can, even if it’s calling 911 or even offering calm and comfort to someone who is injured. It’s called humanity and this driver has restored my faith that there are still people out there who do the right thing no matter the cost to them. There must be a person or company who is looking for an employee who has and uses common sense

Company policy cannot cover every situation. Good personal judgement — a character trait that was obviously exhibited here — should be desirable in any good employee. Are you seriously advocating having these guys wait outside in a hailstorm, risking severe injury, in the hopes that an emergency vehicle can get to them in a timely manner in those weather conditions? Step outside of the box!

Undercover cops in an unmarked car. So what you’re all saying is I can walk up to any bus, call for “help”, flash a badge, and I get to ride the school bus with your kids. Frankly, I’m stunned so many of you are ok with this. The bus driver is charged with the safety of the children. Yes, these were actual cops; he got lucky. I agree with the firing.

Kris said: “…I can walk up to any bus, call for “help”, flash a badge, and I get to ride the school bus with your kids. Frankly…”

Frankly, you’re an idiot.
How often do people walk on water, through a hail storm, flash a badge and ride the bus? Are you so daft that you can’t recognize an “unmarked” County Police car? The story facts, as presented, lend themselves to the driver recognizing a dangerous situation and rendering aid.

Well, if you can plan for it to go down during an unexpected Act of God that puts your life in immediate danger with no warning, and you’re screaming for help, and no, not to ride a yellow bus, but for someone to save you, well WOWIE! That would be a hellofa feat. Maybe you should come to my neck of the woods in Tornado Alley and try that during an EF-5. You wouldn’t make it to the steps of the bus, let alone standin around waiting for ER to get there. Can you say SUCKED UP AND SWOOPED AWAY?

I am going to be very disappointed if the detectives’ police department allow that bus company to go a day without finding so many safety violations on all every bus they see that the fleet has to stay off the road EVERY DAY.

Common sense is becoming nonexistent in our society and around the world. We are constantly being discouraged to help our fellow man because of rules and regulations….and freaking lawsuits. Our reluctance to help a stranger in need will be the downfall of society. These were actual police officers. I understand the comments of others when they ask, “what if….”. Well, what if I’m walking from my garage to my mailbox and get hit in the head by a chunk of ice falling from the sky and die? The possibility isn’t going to deter me from checking my mail daily. What if I see an elderly woman in a car broken down on the side of the road with a flat tire? It’s possible she’s actually a rapist in disguise, but I’m still going to stop and help her. If we constantly fear the possibilities, we will never live.

Let’s see if I understand this situation. The lives of three human beings are in danger. The driver had to make a choice between letting them die or following proceedures in a handbook with rigid beaucratic regulations locked up in some dusty drawer in a bus garage. Interesting choice? So, what did he do? He exercised good old fashion American common sense and good judgment and everyone arrived safely home to their loved ones. What were the results? The second guessing, politically correct, let me cover my cowardly hind quarter, let’s thrown him “under the bus” crowd reacted once again. From the White House to the Bus Garage, this picture is being played out across the country on a daily basis. Let’s hear it for the bus driver and good old American values!

Easy Cheeriogrrl, Its just a phrase, like saying top to bottom, from white house to city hall……..but its a bus garage this time……..don’t look for conspiracies here, sparverio hit the nail on the head, (or pinned the tail on the donkey, PUN INTENDED)

I disagree. From the top down, regulation has run amok. Just look at the DOT proposed rule to make people who operate farm tractors get a commercial drivers license. Both Bush and Obama have exploded the number of government regulators, and this has rippled down through the state an local government. As the number of regulators has grown, the quality of the individuals has plummeted and there ability to use common sense has gone to zero.

I am a volunteer firefighter and I absolutely do not believe that the driver was 100% in the right. I am thankful that the police officers were safe, but that isn’t the issue. There was a teenage passenger in the van, and the safety of that child should have been the first thing on the driver’s mind. What would have happened if the police officers were impersonators? His first and only concern should have been to carry out his job following the policies and procedures in place to protect that child. In not following those, he was in violation and unfortunately that means putting up with the consequences. He was not fired for helping the police officers, he was fired on the grounds of violating policies and procedures. If he had been off duty he could have helped them as a civilian, but he needed to carry out his job and put the safety of that child first.

Wrong. In an emergency you use the training you are taught. What does common sense tell you to do when your house is on fire? run. firefighters are taught to respond to this with special training and go against “common” sense and get the situation under control. If the child had not been in the bus it would be a different situation, but he didn’t put the child’s safety first and violated the policies and procedures put into place for protecting the children that the bus company is responsible for. What would have happened if those copes he picked were impersonators? everyone would be singing a different tune right now.